The government is applying for Mepa permits for the recreational park at Maghtab, in the hope that families would be able to start enjoying it in 2014.

Speaking during a visit to the landfill this morning, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that €9 million had already been spent on the first phase of the project, which will be completed by October.

The park is expected to cost an additional €15 million of EU funds to complete.

Resources Minister George Pullicino said that in the first phase, gases were being treated and the whole surface covered to block the gases from seeping.

Dioxide had already reduced dioxide by 99 per cent but the area needed 25 years to be completely treated.

Mr Pullicino said that only 20 per cent of the the gases burning underneath the rubbish mountain could be converted into energy.

Through some 400 wells, the gases were being used to fire up an oven to destroy the remaining 80 per cent.

All this, would not have been possible without EU funds through which eventually 320,000 square metres of land would eventually be returned to the public.

The minister described the project as the biggest intervention on the biggest environmental disaster in Malta. It was a reminder to governments not to repeat the environmental mistakes of the 70s and 80s.

Those who had taken the decisions then, knew what their impact would be but went ahead, Dr Gonzi said.

Dr Gonzi said that had it been up to the opposition, Malta would have kept dumping waste haphazardly at Maghtab up to eight years ago and the landfill would now be three storeys higher. Malta would also have lost the EU funds for project, if the opposition's advice was heeded.

Waste was instead being dumped at an engineered landfill next door at Ghallis, which would also be, eventually, converted and returned to the public. Since this was an engineered landfill, it would much easier to convert, he said.